Out of Touch

Pivoting off the news about John McCain's $520 shoes, Chris Hayes wonders if the press will ever notice that John McCain is a rich, out of touch elitist. Well, I have my doubts. But this stuff is relevant. Clearly, it's possible for people who've lived lives of privilege (FDR is the famous example) to promote policies that are beneficial to people who are struggling. But you really do see with McCain a lot of proposals that seem to reflect a lack of understanding of how people live their lives.

It's easy, for example, for someone on the "I married an heiress" plan to talk about the need to privatize Social Security or cut benefits. And someone who, like John McCain, has never actually experienced private sector health insurance might well not understand what it is about it that has so many people agitated. And McCain, it's worth recalling, isn't even someone who got rich by earning a fortune in business and thus might have learned something about upward mobility. He just married into it. But he doesn't appear to have any of that FDR-like sense of noblesse oblige -- he just has a lot of policies that are well-suited to the interests of people like himself.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.